I lifted the sheet off of the body and stared at it. The girl was completely pale, she looked liked she’d been dead for a while. I began by first examining her head. A long strangulation mark was visible on her neck.

“Hmm, I’m going to assume that the strangulation was the cause of death,” I said, though why strangulation when the killer was just going to stab her anyways? After that I examined the front and back hooves. As Seeker said, they were severely burned and yet they don’t look like they were that damaging. Actually looking closely I saw a little bit of a cream like substance on one of the hooves.

I inspected it and found it to be ointment. So, this guy decided to apply this after burning her? What would be the purpose? If you’re killing someone then you are not gonna be taking care of them. I could understand after death since he wants to “gift” this to us, but not when the victim is alive. It’s kinda like a sick caretaker sort of feel I’m getting.

Next was the knife wounds which came after her death. One in the heart and one long looking slice in her torso that went up to her neck. Now that I was looking at her a little bit more I swear she looks like one of those stuffed animals you find at a toy store. I placed the sheet back on her body and went over to Seeker’s tent.

“Hey doc, I got a couple of more questions for you,”

“Alright, what is it?” asked Seeker.

“I noticed some burn cream on the victim’s hooves. I just think it’s kinda weird he applied that on her,"

“Hmm interesting, I have seen cases where the killer would care for the victim for a while, like a sort of caretaker due to mental instability, so maybe it’s the same case here,” I’m pretty sure killing someone on purpose already makes the guy mentally unstable for what he’s doing.

“Alright, I noticed that the girl looks pale, had you estimated a time of death?”

“Judging from body temperature, I’d say she’d been dead for a few days at least two to three days max. I’ll hopefully learn some more when I do an autopsy then I’ll let you know,” good, well then, time to interview the friend.

“I’m gonna go talk to the victim’s friend, she’ll probably have some info,” doc gave me the address for Ms. Daisy so I started heading there now.

Daisy’s House

1:10 p.m.

Ponyville

I knocked on the front door and was greeted by an earth pony mare. She had a magenta coat, lime green hair, emerald colored eyes, and two daisies as her cutie mark.

“Oh hello, can I help you?” she asked.

“Detective Hunter, I’m helping the royal guard in an investigation miss, may I come inside and ask some questions?” she nodded and let me into her living room. Flowers were spread in different parts of her home, it smelled very fresh in here it was very refreshing. We sat down in two chairs and I started the interview.

“Ma'am, I’m sorry to inform you, but your friend Ms. Roseluck was murdered. Her body was found yesterday,” Daisy’s eyes widened and tears began leaking out. This was the part I hated, I was never good at comforting mares. I’m not emotionally insensitive or anything, but I’m not good at this stuff.

“Daisy I know this is hard for you, but you need to pull yourself together. We have a killer on the loose and he may kill more. So stop crying and help me,” thankfully that worked and she wiped her tears.

“Did Ms. Roseluck have any enemies or ponies that disliked her?”

“No, Rose was a very happy mare, she loved talking to ponies and was super friendly to everypony. There isn't a single pony in all of Equestria that could hate Rose,” I felt she was telling the truth so I moved on.

“How long have you known Roseluck?”

“Since we were little fillies. We met at school and became best friends really quick. I… I just can’t believe she’s gone,” Daisy sniffed.

“Was Rose acting strange at all when you last saw her?”

“N-no she was fine as always, it’s um very hard to bring her mood down,” Daisy stuttered there, she’s hiding something.

“Why are you lying to me Daisy? I’m trying to figure out why your friend is dead, so you better start talking or I can have you jailed for obstruction of justice!” I threatened, I didn’t like getting angry, but it needed to be done.

“Rose, she… she’d been drinking lately and coming back to her house drunk. Sometimes I’d have to walk her home. She told me she was at risk of losing her shop and her house, her bills were piling up and she couldn’t afford to pay. One night she came to me and showed me a bag full of bits. I asked where did she get the money from, she just said not to worry about it and that everything would be fine,”

“Do you know the name of the bar?”

“Yes, it’s called the Stallion’s Goblet, it’s down the street to the left. It has a big sign so you can’t miss it,”

“Last question, about the bag of bits, do you know where the bag is right now?”

“It should be somewhere in Rose’s house. She lived across the street from me right there,” she pointed to a red and yellow house straight ahead from here.

“Thank you Ms. Daisy, you’ve been very helpful,” I left her house and walked to Rose’s.

Roseluck’s House

1:19 p.m.

Ponyville

The door was opened, I walked inside and found the place was completely wrecked. Someone came in and was looking for something. I looked around and found a bookcase that was thrown on the floor with a hole where it once stood. The hole had a bag shape that I assumed was where the bag of bits was hidden. Rose made some enemies if they wanted to ransack her house like this but how does this connect to her death? Did she steal the bits from someone powerful and killed her? Did she screw someone over? Many questions went into my head and no answers came out.

There was nothing for me here so I decided to head to the bar and see if the bartender and patrons could provide information.

Stallion’s Goblet

1:30 p.m.

Ponyville

Pretty classy looking place for a bar I must say. A pretty fancy looking door with golden handles, a Canterlot style architecture, how the hell could anypony afford to come here? I went inside and went up to the bartender.

“Hey there what can I getcha?”

“Detective Hunter, I’m investigating the death of Roseluck,”

“Rose dead? Damn, I knew she was getting into too much trouble,”

“Was Rose a regular here?” I asked.

“Nah, Rose was the kinda mare that wouldn’t start drinking unless something really bothered her. She started coming in more frequently last week, I thought she’d kill herself with the amount she was consuming,”

“Ms. Daisy said that Rose came into possession of a lot of money, did she say anything here?”

“Only thing she mentioned was that she was gonna talk to Mr. Filthy Rich about something. If anypony needed money around here, they borrow some from Mr. Rich. A lot of ponies think that Mayor Mare runs things around here, but Rich he pretty much owns Ponyville. He’s a nice sort though don’t get me wrong, everypony loves Mr. Rich, he always donates to charity and helps out a lot around here. Only bad thing, is that bratty daughter of his, guy is too blind to see that his daughter is an asshole,”

“Okay, thanks for your help,”

“No problem,” I was about to leave when the bartender shouted at me.

“Hey! Get the son of a bitch that killed her okay? Rose was a nice mare, she ain’t done nothing to nopony,”

I left the bar and went to rent an apartment to stay during the investigation. After looking around I found a nice place that was pretty cheap, I got a sandwich from the fridge and went straight to bed. Was Rich the one who ordered Rose dead? The Gift Maker was a killer so maybe he works for Rich, maybe not but I needed to be sure. Tomorrow I’ll talk to Rich and see what I can find out.

Author's Note

Well another chapter done with, I got a few ideas as to where this story goes so we'll see. I still feel like this story kinda sucks, but screw it I'm still gonna write it. As long as one person still likes it, than I'll keep writing.